2003 Regional and State Unemployment — 2004-02-27

Annual average unemployment rates edged up in three regions and rose in about two-thirds of the states in 2003. Meanwhile, employment-population ratios again declined in all four regions and in the majority of states, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. At the national level, the jobless rate edged up by 0.2 percentage point to 6.0 percent, while the employment-population ratio declined by 0.4 percentage point to 62.3 percent. Among the four regions, the Midwest experienced the largest jobless rate increase from 2002 (+0.4 percentage point), the Northeast and South both re- corded smaller increases (+0.2 point each), and the West reported no rate change from the year before. For the 12th consecutive year, the West regi- stered the highest regional unemployment rate, 6.5 percent. The Northeast and South each reported the lowest jobless rate, 5.8 percent, little dif- ferent from the 5.9 percent rate in the Midwest.